Didn't look too good and won means that when they look good they uber-win. That's not good news for us.

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Senegal are dangerous as hell. I will be satisfied with a draw. Nishino need to find a way to deal with their physicality and pace. Japan will easily concede a few goals in the first half if they played like they did against Colombia.

Staff Member

Didn't look too good and won means that when they look good they uber-win. That's not good news for us.

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Not really, watch the highlights of the match. The second goal is hilarious. Majster has a point, the result is a bit random, or rather, more Poland disapponinting in attack. I didn't see the match but I don't understand how Milik and Lewandowski can be on the pitch at the same time honestly

Not really, watch the highlights of the match. The second goal is hilarious. Majster has a point, the result is a bit random, or rather, more Poland disapponinting in attack. I didn't see the match but I don't understand how Milik and Lewandowski can be on the pitch at the same time honestly

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I watched it.

Senegal looked dangerous whenever they attacked because of their superior individual skills.

Poland was better in terms of team organisation, they had more ball position and shots, but they played a predictable football with long passes and crosses, which made it easy to Senegal to defend.

In the other hand, it was clear that Poland is not familiar with non-European playstyles, such as African, Latin America and Asian.
In Pre-WC friendlies they played 5 games at home (they drew against Chile and Uruguay, defeated South Korea by 1 goal margin, and lost against Nigeria and Mexico -they won their 6th and final Pre-WC match against Lithuania, but it wasn't a big deal-). One wonders what the results would look like if the matches were played at neutral venues with the opponents don't have to travel cross-continents to play friendlies during the league season.

As for playing Lewandowski and Mililk together, Milik was playing under the top, but it was a complete waste to play him in such a position.

I think Poland's match is the most winnable for Japan, if they managed to neutralize Lewandowaski and deal very well with Poland's aerial crosses and shots from distance.

As you can see their playstyle is quite predictable and any potent team can know where the danger comes from, unlike teams with above-average individual skills like Colombia and Senegal which are quite unpredictable.

Well, in the game against Columbia entire team ran 101 km which is one of the lowest during this WC. So surely there are reserves in the team in this aspect.

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I didn't miss the time when Japan had one of the highest kms and still no score goal/point.
I hope we continue make opponents meaninglessly run for 90 minutes while scoring on pk/ck, another factor never seen before in the past.

A question to @Samurai Warrior: Senegal gk was fine? Or did he act strangly as in SK friendly?

I didn't miss the time when Japan had one of the highest kms and still no score goal/point.
I hope we continue make opponents meaninglessly run for 90 minutes while scoring on pk/ck, another factor never seen before in the past.

A question to @Samurai Warrior: Senegal gk was fine? Or did he act strangly as in SK friendly?

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He pulled at least a couple of great saves, with one of them from Lewandowski's curling free-kick, he was generally good.

By the way, Japan ran more than Colombia in the last game. See the post below.

I don't like looking at how good or bad they were in the last game. Every game is different and they are a physical, athletic team which Japan sometimes struggle against. That said they aren't the most organised team and chase the ball at times so I think with Japan's neat and tidy play they can cut them open. IdI like to see more urgency from Japan and i think they can do it!

Japan ran more than Colombia, they ran 63 miles (101km) while Colombia ran 58 miles (93km) according to statistics from Fox Sports.

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Well you do have to take into account that Japan had one more player for basically the entire game. So they were even on distance run per outfield player, although I suspect it was very skewed toward the wide players - Haraguchi in particular was completely gassed.

Well you do have to take into account that Japan had one more player for basically the entire game. So they were even on distance run per outfield player, although I suspect it was very skewed toward the wide players - Haraguchi in particular was completely gassed.

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haraguchi has been terribly average but what an engine. ran around like a mad dog for ninety minutes.

Give the guys some credits and trust in them.
Imo Osako can be the "secret weapon" I was joking about, if he enter in a state of grace for the whole competition he should be our MVP of the tournament as Honda in 2010.
Same for Kagawa and Inui, I hope for a combo-goal with them as protagonist against Senegal. They had the skills to do that.
Haraguchi seems our hardwork guy. Maybe he hold himself in the friendlies to restore his forces for the real challenge.

Give the guys some credits and trust in them.
Imo Osako can be the "secret weapon" I was joking about, if he enter in a state of grace for the whole competition he should be our MVP of the tournament as Honda in 2010.
Same for Kagawa and Inui, I hope for a combo-goal with them as protagonist against Senegal. They had the skills to do that.
Haraguchi seems our hardwork guy. Maybe he hold himself in the friendlies to restore his forces for the real challenge.

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He did not hold himself in the friendlies.
He was working hard for every NT match he is involved in, surging foreward over the wing and tracking back to support the defence.
His only problem is his poor finishing, which we can make up with better finishers beside him.